On Fox, Trump Says "People Are Watching" To See If Lester Holt "Succumbs To … Pressure" To Fact-Check During The Debate

From Media Matters:

STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Mr. Trump, coming up on Monday night on all the channels will be the first presidential debate. I know in the media they have been talking about whether or not the moderator, in this case, Lester Holt, should he be a moderator and just ask questions or should he be a fact-checker where he asks a question and then if somebody says something that he thinks is wrong, then he's going to interrupt and try to correct the record. What would you like to see, a moderator or a fact-checker?

DONALD TRUMP: Well I think he has to be a moderator. I mean you're debating somebody and if she makes a mistake or if I make a mistake, we'll take each other on. But I certainly don't think you want Candy Crowley again. That was a --

DOOCY: Yeah she was wrong. 

TRUMP: Well and she turned out to be wrong. 

AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): Her facts were inaccurate.

TRUMP: I really don't think that you want that. That was a very pivotal moment in that debate and it really threw the debate off and it was unfair. So I don't think you want that. No, I think you have to have somebody that's just lets them argue it out. And I think there's a lot of pressure on Lester. I think Lester's a very good person, a very good man. I think that there's a lot of pressure on him because of Matt Lauer. When I had the town hall, I guess you call it a forum with Hillary --

DOOCY: Commander-in-Chief [Forum].

TRUMP: -- it was -- I did well. And I had tough questions. But the polls all had hers taking a drubbing in that one. Now, I will say, they went after Matt Lauer. I've never seen anything like it.

DOOCY: They sure did.

TRUMP: And I think my questions were harder than her questions, if you want to know the truth. And a lot of pressure's being put on Lester Holt, and it's Bobby Knight-type pressure with the refs, OK? Bobby Knight would go after the refs, and that's what they are doing with Lester Holt, which is I think very, very unfair. And a lot of people are watching to see whether or not he succumbs to that pressure.

Fox News Turns More Health Care Options Into Fewer Health Care Options

JUSTIN BERRIER/Media Matters For America:

Fox News dishonestly claimed that consumers in the health care law's exchanges would have limited options, ignoring reports that the exchanges will offer significantly more choice than is currently available in the individual market.

On Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade said, "You cannot force a private company to get into these exchanges. And if they all bail out like Aetna's done in a lot of states, like United's done in a lot of states, next thing you know, they're only going to have one option and it's going to be a federal option, a nationalized health care system because none of the private sector wants to get involved." Co-host Steve Doocy agreed, claiming "That's kind of subterfuge is - a lot of people are saying that's the ultimate end game for President Obama and the Democrats, is the single-payer where the government pays for everything":

But Fox's characterization of choices in the health care exchanges is misleading. Despite some insurers not initially providing plans in the exchanges, consumers in the majority of markets will have several health care options to choose from. The New York Times reported that, as of May, 2013, "More than 120 insurance companies have filed applications with the federal government":

More than 120 insurance companies have filed applications with the federal government, and it appears that most consumers will be able to choose from health plans offered by five or more insurers, the administration said.

One-fourth of insurance companies proposing to offer coverage in these federal exchanges have recently entered the individual market, the administration said.

Experts on health policy said the filing of applications was only the beginning of a race to the market for insurers. After scrutinizing applications, federal and state officials could demand changes in benefits and rates, and insist that insurers expand their proposed networks of doctors and hospitals.

A recent report by the Department of Health and Human Services of exchanges in 36 states found that consumers "will be able to choose from an average of 53 different plans when the new health insurance marketplaces, also called exchanges, open on Oct. 1."  

For many consumers purchasing insurance through the individual market, options for purchasing insurance are already extremely limited. The Center for American Progress pointed out that individual insurance markets often only offer a few options and many markets are dominated by one insurer:

[I]n many states insurance markets are dominated by only one or two insurance carriers. In at least 21 states, one carrier controls more than half the market. More than half of the market is controlled by two carriers in at least 39 states. In 2007, a survey conducted by the American Medical Association found that in more than 95 percent of insurance markets, a single commercial carrier controlled at least 30 percent of the insurance market.

In addition, exchange plan choices for initial enrollment will only affect a small portion of the market. In theWashington Post's Wonkblog, Ezra Klein pointed out that "we're talking about a small fraction of the American health-care system":

Here's the first thing to know: We're talking about a small fraction of the American health-care system. This isn't about people on Medicare or Medicaid or employer-based insurance. It's about people joining Obamacare's insurance exchanges. That's people who buy insurance on their own now, as well as some of the uninsured. In 2014, 7 million people, or 2.5 percent of the population, is expected to buy insurance through the exchanges. By 2023, that will rise to 24 million people, or 8 percent. 

So we're talking about a small portion of the market.

INCREDIBLE: Fox Hosts Suddenly Hate Same Wiretapping They Supported Under Bush

Omar Rivero/Americans Against the Tea Party

Taking their hypocrisy to a whole new level, the biggest group of liars on network news, also known as the folks on Fox and Friends, responded with alarm and outrage to the news that the national security agency has been collecting the phone records of millions of cell phone customers without first obtaining a warrant, conveniently forgetting the fact that they were all strong proponents and defenders of the exact same actions when undertaken by their darlings of the Bush Administration.

Thursday morning on their FOX News marathon of distortion, the hosts railed into the Obama administration, accusing them of abusing the PATRIOT Act with a “gigantic overreach” of executive power.

“What is the objective of getting these numbers and collecting all these numbers from all the millions of Americans?” asked co-host Brian Kilmeade. “Are they overseas calls? Is there terror activity? Is there reason to be suspicious? Or is this abuse of the PATRIOT Act?”

Steve Ducey, suddenly a self-proclaimed legal expert on the PATRIOT Act, went on to say that this kind of executive investigation is a violation of the Act’s section 215, which states that “You could go after people based on individual investigations,” but forbids collecting data from average American citizens.

As we have come to expect from FOXNews, and especially Fox and Friends, in the 2006 broadcast, Ducey and other fox hosts were saying the exact opposite about NSA wiretaps.

During the authoritative rule of the Bush Administration, the host of “Fox and Friends” were publicabout their cynical nixing the term “warrant-less wiretapping” in favor of calling the investigations “the terrorist surveillance program”. Adding insult to injury, they even went out of their way to justify the practice.

On January 25, 2006, Kilmeade said, “Let’s call it the terrorist surveillance program. That would be a lot easier.”

Doocy agreed, saying, “And more accurate.”

“Yeah, more accurate too,” Kilmeade said. “If you’re for the NSA wiretapping without going to the FISA court, I guess warrant-less, then most likely you’re Republican.  If you are against it, you most likely are a Democrat.”

This is another example of just how treasonous and hypocritical Roger Ailes and his pathetic FOX News network puppets are when assessing the legality and validity of the reasoning and explanations provided by the Obama Administration, given the fact that they were drooling over every single infinitely more egregious overreach of executive power carried out by the Bush Administration.

Not only did the entire network cheerlead the Iraq war, they were strong supporters of waterboarding, secret prisons, the PATRIOT Act, and even the Justice Department’s illegal screening of the political orientation of potential lawyers.

Please do your part in exposing their hypocrisy by sharing this and other related articles on social media sites and other appropriate places on the internet.

Watch the video, embedded below via Mediaite:

Former British Prime Minister Doesn't Buy Right-Wing Attacks On Obama's Schedule

KEVIN ZIEBER/Media Matters for America

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair threw cold water on the right-wing media complaint that President Obama is shirking his duty by not having bilateral meetings with world leaders during the United Nations General Assembly this week.

After criticizing Obama's schedule earlier in the show, Fox & Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson asked Blair: "Is there a difference, when you are a leader of a country, in a phone conversation versus a face-to-face meeting with another leader?"

But Blair did not play along with Fox's talking point, saying instead that while UN week is "a necessary thing to go through," what really matters "is where America is in the world today."

BLAIR: Yeah, but I think to be fair, UN week is -- you know, I used to attend the UN week every year pretty much --

STEVE DOOCY (co-host): It's a festivity.

BLAIR: Well, it's a necessary thing to go through. I don't quite know how to put this diplomatically. I probably am putting it undiplomatically. No, I think what matters, frankly, is where America is in the world today. And, you know, I always say this to people, because in America you see these pictures of people burning the flag and out on the street and so on. You've just got to understand that there is another side to all of that, which is actually people who admire America, respect it, and need it to be strong. And I always say to people in America don't worry so much about being loved, just be strong.

Blair added that he did not believe the U.S. was projecting weakness when co-host Brian Kilmeade asked if America was "projecting a vulnerability and a weakness today."

Arrrr you serious?

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Fox News and Matt Drudge turn ‘pirate’ gag into international incident

By Stephen C. Webster/Raw Story

If you were watching Fox News or reading The Drudge Report on Thursday morning, you might mistakenly believe that President Barack Obama blew off the prime minister of Israel this week to chat up a colorfully costumed man who looks more like “Captain Morgan” than any government leader.

“TOO BUSY FOR ISRAEL,” a “Fox & Friends” kicker headline read in all-caps, stamped below a photo of Obama sitting next to man dressed like a pirate. “PRESIDENT FINDS TIME FOR PIRATE, LETTERMAN.” Hosts Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy piled on, attributing the photo to “International Talk Like A Pirate Day,” an unofficial holiday marked every year on Sept. 19.

Co-host Gretchen Carlson added: “I’m going to have to see more on that story because it doesn’t totally seem to gel.” Still, the show went on, with the “Fox & Friends” production team repeatedly displaying the pirate photo and even cuing up pirate music. Doocy later said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “getting the Clint Eastwood treatment” from Obama, and showed a photo of the Israeli president cross-cut with an image of an empty chair.

Matt Drudge, the conservative media aggregator behind The Drudge Report, took the bait. “BUT NO TIME FOR NETANYAHU…” a headline on his popular conservative website declared, according to a record of the post captured by liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America.

It didn’t take long for savvy web users to point out that the pirate photo not is new. It turns out the image was taken as part of a Twitter joke for the White House Correspondents Association dinner, which typically features a night of political comedy and a satirical speech by the president. It has been available online since May 2009.

Reacting to the obvious blunder, a Twitter account for “Fox & Friends” corrected the repeat error. “The picture we aired this morning of the President & the pirate was from 2009,” they explained. Drudge, however, did not offer a correction.

This video is from “Fox & Friends,” broadcast Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012, as snipped by Talking Points Memo.

Fox Has No Memory Of Any "Successful Terror Attack Since 9-11"

KEVIN ZIEBER/Media Matters for America

Fox's Gretchen Carlson whitewashed the national security record of the Bush administration to suggest the attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya was "the first successful terror attack since 9-11."

On three separate occasions during Fox & Friends, Carlson asked "Did the first successful terror attack since 9-11 just happen under President Obama's watch?" Carlson asked that question while teasing upcoming segments, but Fox never attempted to answer that question.

Carlson could not be more misleading on this issue. The State Department produces an annual report compiling all known instances of terrorism, which is defined as "premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents." In its 2008 report, the State Department counted 19 private U.S. citizens killed as a result of terrorism in 2007 alone. The report also counted more than 40,000 terrorist attacks worldwide between 2005 and 2007.

There were several high-profile terrorist attacks inside the U.S. during the Bush administration, including the anthrax attacks, the fatal shooting at the El Al airlines ticket counter at the Los Angeles International Airport, the DC-area sniper attacks -- all of which occurred in 2002. In addition, there was a 2003 attack on a U.S. diplomatic vehicle that killed three in the Gaza Strip. Three American security personnel were killed while transporting diplomats from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv.

Fox has a history of reacting to violence during the Obama administration by claiming that no terrorist attacks in the U.S. that occurred during the Bush administration.

• On May 3, 2010, Fox contributor Charles Krauthammer said there were "no successful attacks in the United States" after the 9-11 attacks.
• Fox host Dana Perino said on November 24, 2009, that "we did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term." The next day, she amended her statement on Twitter, writing: "I obviously meant no terror attack on U.S. post 9/11 during  Bush 2nd term."
• On July 13, 2011, Fox host Eric Bolling said: "I don't remember any terrorist attacks on American soil" between 2000 and 2008. Bolling also followed up the next day with a clarification, saying: "Obviously, I meant in the aftermath of 9-11." Weeks later, Bolling defended Bush by saying "not since" the 9-11 attacks "until the end of his term, was there ... not even an attempted terrorist attack on American soil."
• Fox contributor Monica Crowley claimed on January 6, 2010, that after the 9-11 attacks, the Bush administration "had a 100 percent perfect track record in keeping the homeland safe from an Islamic terrorist attack."

Fox & Friends Covers For Romney's Bain Controversy With Softball Interview

JUSTIN BERRIER/Media Matters for America

Fox News is helping Mitt Romney cover up discrepancies in his account of when he left Bain Capital by hosting the Republican presidential candidate for a softball interview that completely whitewashed the substance of the growing controversy.  

The Romney campaign has been scrambling to explain recent reports by the Boston Globe, Mother Jones,and Talking Points Memo that contradict the campaign's claim that Romney left Bain in 1999 to run the Salt Lake City Olympics committee. Those reports have raised questions as to why Romney continued to report income earned as a Bain executive as late as 2002, and why he continued signing securities forms after he had supposedly left the firm:

SEC files include at least six instances of Romney signing documents after February 1999, proving -- unless the signatures were forged -- that his claim to not have "been involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way" is wrong.

The Huffington Post's Ryan Grimm and Jason Cherkis further reported that as late as 2002, Romney was "authorized to execute, acknowledge, deliver and record any recordable instrument purporting to affect an interest in real property" with Bain. On MSNBC's Up w/ Chris Hayes, a former Bain Capital partner "noted that Romney remained 'legally' in charge of the company for at least two years after the former governor says he left to take over the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City."

But during a 7-minute interview Monday, the hosts of Fox & Friends didn't ask Romney to explain those discrepancies.

Romney was asked about his post-1999 role in Bain in interviews on ABC News,  CBS News, CNN, and NBC News on July 13.

The controversy continued Sunday when Romney advisor Ed Gillespie told CNN that the discrepancy between Romney holding critical titles in Bain capital after he claimed to have left is because Romney "retired retroactively to 1999" from Bain in 2002:

"There may have been a thought at the time that it could be part time, but it was not part time," Gillespie said.

"He took a leave of absence and in fact he ended up not going back at all, and retired retroactively to 1999 as a result," he added. "He left a life he loved to go to Salt Lake City and help a country he loves more, and somehow Chicago... is trying to make it something sinister."

Forbes contributor TJ Walker has argued that Romney's response to the controversy has raised more questions than they have answered, including:

1. Are you contending that an individual can simultaneously be the CEO, president, managing director of a company, and its sole stockholder and somehow be "disassociated" from the company or accurately classified as someone not having "any" formal involvement with a company?

2. You have stated that in "Feb. 1999 I left Bain capital and all management responsibility" and "I had no ongoing activity or involvement." It depends on what the definition of "involvement" is, doesn't it? Clearly you were involved with Bain to the extent that you owned it. Are you defining "involvement" in a uniquely specific way that only means "full-time, active, 60-hours-a-week, hands-on manager?"

If Fox & Friends is any indication, Romney won't be forced to answer any of those questions if he sticks with Fox News. 

Fox Hides Guest's Membership In Anti-Health Care Reform Group

ZACHARY PLEAT/Media Matters for America:

Fox & Friends today interviewed a member of the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) to attack the Affordable Care Act without disclosing his ties to the anti-health care group. NFIB member and small business owner Mike Paine appeared on the program to claim that the health care bill will hurt his business, an attack that has been repeated by other NFIB members.

During the interview, Fox & Friends co-host Dave Briggs asked Paine to explain, "[w]hy, in your opinion, does Obamacare hurt small businesses like yours?" Paine went on to talk about his uncertainty over the law and claimed he believed President Obama wants to get rid of employer-based health care:

At no point during the interview did Briggs mention that Paine was a member of the NFIB, a group that has spent millions opposing the health care reform law, even though the NFIB's Twitter account promoted his appearance on Thursday:

.@NFIB member Mike Paine of CT on @foxandfriends tomorrow morning to discuss how#Obamacare will affect his #smallbiz bit.ly/PiPHo2

-- NFIB (@NFIB) July 5, 2012

The NFIB has long been involved in the effort to overturn the Affordable Care Act. Salon.com's Alex Seitz-Weldnoted that the NFIB is the lead plaintiff in one of the lawsuits against the law that went before the Supreme Court, and reported that the group's lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act "cost at least $2.9 million in 2010 alone." He also reported that:

The NFIB presents itself as the "nonpartisan" voice of small businesses, but liberal critics charge that, much like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the NFIB has become a partisan conservative attack dog.

The group has given vastly more to GOP candidates than to Democrats, with over 90 percent of its contributions going to Republicans for the past 15 years, on average. So far this year, they've given almost $300,000 to GOP candidates and just $3,500 to Democrats. Crossroads GPS, the 501(c)4 arm of Karl Rove's American Crossroads, also gave$3.7 million to the NFIB last year.

But Paine isn't the only small business owner affiliated with the NFIB that Fox has hosted to criticize health care reform, and it isn't the first time they failed to disclose the guest's NFIB membership.

The blog Balloon Juice pointed out that a small business owner named Joe Olivo recently appeared on NPR and NBC News to bash the Affordable Care Act - without his membership in the NFIB being disclosed. Olivo has also appeared several times on Fox to criticize the law:

Wow--two news organizations covering the same story scoured the nation for a random small business owner to comment on that story--and they both found the same one! How'd that happen? What are the odds?

Well, as it turns out, Joe Olivo of Perfect Printing turns up quite a bit in public discussions of this and other issues. Here he is testifying against the health care law before House and Senate committees in January 2011. Here he is on the Fox Business Network around the same time, discussing the same subject. Here he is a few days ago, also on Fox Business, talking to John Stossel about the law. Here he is discussing the same subject on a New Jersey Fox affiliate.

And here he is in July 2010 discussing small business hiring with Neil Cavuto on Fox News.Here he is opposing an increase in the minimum wage in an MSNBC debate a couple of weeks ago.

Go to many of these links and you find out something about Joe Olivo that NPR and NBC didn't tell you: he's a member of the National Federation of Independent Business. NFIB's site and YouTube page promote many of Olivo's public appearances. He was the subject of an NFIB "My Voice in Washington" online video in 2011.

A Nexis search shows that Joe Olivo has been hosted by Fox News and Fox Business six times since July 2010, and in those appearances he criticized health care reform and claimed it will hurt his business - without his membership in the NFIB being disclosed.

Fox & Friends Produces 4 Minute Anti-Obama Attack Ad, Then Removes It From Its Website

By Adam Peck/Think Progress

Critics of the Fox News morning program Fox & Friends have often charged the show’s three hosts with essentially providing free airtime to GOP candidates, lawmakers and surrogates with little to no representation from their Democratic counterparts. But Wednesday morning’s foray marks a new low in the network’s willingness to do the Republican Party’s heavy lifting for it.

Fox News produced its own 4 minute attack video disguised as a retrospective of President Obama’s first term in office and aired it as a “Fox & Friends Presents” special. The ad opens with images of cheering voters during the 2008 election, before devolving into a wildly misleading juxtaposition of then-candidate Barack Obama promising change with rising unemployment rates and national debt. Watch it:

At the conclusion of the video, Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy thanked one of the show’s producers for editing together the segment “for weeks.” But it only took hours for network brass to perhaps recognize the implications of Fox News producing and airing its own attack ads, because they quickly pulled from the Fox News website with no explanation. Even conservative sites balked at the idea of Fox News producing its own political attack ads.

Fox News CEO Roger Ailes has long defended his network from charges of bias, explaining–incorrectly–that only the network’s primetime hosts are explicitly partisan. But as this ad clearly demonstrates, the network’s collusion with the Republican party runs much deeper than the 5pm to 10 pm time slots.

UPDATE

Salon’s Alex Seitz-Wald notes that Fox Nation “has now posted and tweeted the video, declaring it a: ‘MUST-SEE VIDEO.’”

UPDATE

“The package that aired on ‘Fox & Friends’ was created by an associate producer and was not authorized at the senior executive level of the network,” Bill Shine, executive vice president of programming at Fox News, told Yahoo News. “This has been addressed with the show’s producers.”

Fox & Friends: Scott Walker's #1 Fan

From Media Matters

After Wisconsin officials reported that opponents of Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) turned in more than 1 million signatures calling for a recall election, Fox & Friends hosted Walker for a softball interview in which the co-hosts reassured him that the recall is "not really about" him and said they "wish[ed]" they were interviewing Walker under "better circumstances." This follows the show's long history of promoting Walker and his policies and attacking his critics.

"It's Not Really About Gov. Scott Walker": Fox & Friends Hosts Walker To Sympathize As Recall Petitions Turned In

NYT: "Organizers Say 1 Million Signed Petition To Recall Wisconsin Governor." On January 17, opponents of Walker announced they collected more than 1 million petition signatures calling for a recall election. From The New York Times:

Critics of Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin submitted to the state on Tuesday more than a million signatures, nearly twice as many as required, on recall petitions against him to force a new election.

State election officials now begin the arduous, expensive process of studying the petitions for flaws and duplicated names. But leaders of the recall effort said the number of signatures was so large as to put any serious legal challenge out of reach. The anti-Walker forces needed 540,208 names and had estimated that they would produce at least 720,000, so the still larger number came as a surprise to many.

Barring a legal fight, Mr. Walker, a Republican who took office a year ago and set off a firestorm by curtailing collective bargaining rights for public workers, will face a new election in the late spring or early summer. Around the country, only two governors have ever been removed through recall. [The New York Times, 1/17/12]

Carlson: "It's So Great To See You In Person. I Wish For You Personally It Was For Better Circumstances." On the January 18 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, the co-hosts interviewed Walker. Co-host Gretchen Carlson began the interview by saying to Walker, "I believe this is your debut on the curvy couch [in the studio] ... Well, it's so great to see you in person. I wish for you personally it was for better circumstances." Later, after Walker said that his administration had "kept all of our promises," Carlson said, "And, by the way, Wisconsin has added jobs in the meantime and cut costs at the same time." Co-host Brian Kilmeade later said, "And what I'm getting from you, and from all the plethora of material, it's not really about Governor Scott Walker. This is about the next election and the direction of our country." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 1/18/11]

Fox & Friends Has A Long History Of Promoting Walker And His Policies ...

"No One Can Question Your Leadership": Kilmeade Tossed Softballs To Gov. Walker In Fawning Interview. On the November 22, 2011, edition of Fox & Friends, the co-hosts discussed the efforts to recall Walker and then interviewed him. Before the interview, Carlson said to Kilmeade, "One thing I hope you ask him is how many jobs have been created in that state." Kilmeade began the interview by saying, "You're already in motion to protect your position. How disappointing is it that you've got to worry about a recall and not just worry about the state's business?" Kilmeade later said to Walker, "No one can question your leadership." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 11/22/11]

Fox & Friends Hyped Flawed Jobs Claim To Tout Walker's Policies. On the August 3, 2011, edition of Fox & Friends, Carlson introduced a segment featuring Walker by claiming: "In June, the state gained 8,500 jobs. That's more than half of what the entire nation gained overall." Co-host Steve Doocy added: "One of those reasons for success, the governor, just seven months on the job, Scott Walker has helped the state get back more than a quarter of the jobs lost during the big recession. How did he do it?"

• PolitiFact Wisconsin Rated WI Jobs Claim "False." PolitiFact Wisconsin rated the claim that "more than half the nation's job growth in June came from Wisconsin" false, writing that Walker and GOP state officials were making "a flawed comparison." The Associated Press also reported that the statement "could lead to a faulty inference" since five states had added more net jobs in June 2011 than Wisconsin had. [Media Matters, 8/3/11]

Fox & Friends Extensively Covered Threats To Walker And Republican Lawmakers, But Previously Mocked Threats To Democrats. On the March 14, 2011, edition of Fox & Friends, the co-hosts repeatedly discussed "death threats" reportedly received by Republican Wisconsin lawmakers and attacked Time magazine for referring to Walker as "Dead Man Walker." Yet during the debates over health care reform in March 2010, the co-hosts mocked threats to Democratic lawmakers; Kilmeade asked on the March 25, 2010, edition of the show if "Democrats [are] using" threats of violence "to their advantage to marginalize Republican opposition?" Carlson agreed that it was "disappointing" that Democrats were making the threats public and said that "they should just stop discussing it altogether." [Media Matters, 3/14/11]

Fox & Friends Reversed Poll Results To Falsely Claim Most Americans Favored Ending Collective Bargaining. On the February 23, 2011, edition of Fox & Friends, while discussing protests in Wisconsin over Walker's efforts to end public employees' collective bargaining rights, Kilmeade claimed, as did an on-screen graphic, that a USA Today/Gallup poll had found that  "61 percent" of Americans were in favor of taking away collective bargaining rights from public unions.

• In Fact, Fox Aired The Results Backward. In fact, the Gallup poll found that 61 percent of Americans were opposed to "a law similar to [the] proposal in Wisconsin." In the final minute of the broadcast, Kilmeade issued a correction, saying, "I had it reversed." [Media Matters, 2/23/11]

... And Attacking His Critics

Fox & Friends Hosted WI GOP Politician To Misinform About Walker's Anti-Union Legislation.On June 16, 2011, Fox & Friends hosted Glenn Grothman, a Republican state senator in Wisconsin, to promote Walker's anti-union bill and to misleadingly suggest that the legal challenges to the bill simply involved state employees' contributions to their pensions.

• In Fact, Controversy Surrounding Bill Sparked By Cutting Workers' Collective Bargaining Rights; Unions Agreed To Pension Cuts. In fact, protests over the bill and legal challenges to it centered around provisions that stripped most public workers' rights to collective bargaining; and union leaders had already agreed to pension and health care cuts before the bill was passed. [Media Matters, 6/16/11]

Fox & Friends Falsely Portrayed WI Protesters As "Violent." During the protests at the Wisconsin statehouse over Walker's proposal to end collective bargaining rights for public employees, Fox & Friends repeatedly attacked protesters opposing Walker's proposal. On the March 3, 2011, edition of the show, Kilmeade introduced a segment on Grothman being heckled by a chanting crowd of protesters by claiming the protesters were "getting restless and, dare I say, violent." Doocy said, "When you look at that and all the incivility there, you realize that to these people, elections have no consequence, mean nothing." The co-hosts later interviewed Grothman; Doocy asked him, "Were you scared?"

• There Was No Evidence Of Violence On The Video, And Photographer Who Shot It Slammed Fox's Coverage. The full 12-minute video on YouTube showed that no violence occurred and that at times protesters chanted "peace" and "peaceful." The photographer who shot the footage said he "condem[ned]" Fox's "use of my work to distort the truth.

Fox & Friends: Who Cares About Romney’s Tax Returns?

By MICHAEL LESTER/TPM

With all the recent debate surrounding income equality, tax rates and whether the wealthy are paying their “fair share”, Mitt Romney has some under pressure to release his tax returns. In the debate last night, this pressure was ramped up from members of his own party.

Eager to get to the bottom of the issue with some keen insight, TPM tuned in to Fox & Friends this morning and found that the question itself isn’t even worth asking.

A Tale Of Two Fox & Friends Interviews

by Justin Berrier/Media Matters

Among the many things Fox & Friends does that betrays their "fair and balanced" mantra is how the hosts interview guests of different ideological backgrounds. Their habit of lobbing softball questions to GOP candidates and officials even got so bad that Fox's own Las Vegas affiliate slammed the show for their kid-glove treatment of then-Senate candidate Sharron Angle.

On this morning's broadcast, the co-hosts invited both Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, and Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, to comment on last night's Republican caucus in Iowa and the presidential election in general.

First up was Wasserman Schultz. Co-host Gretchen Carlson led the interview by claiming she was "looking forward" to one of their "spirited discussions." In the discussion that followed, Carlson asked Wasserman Schultz if Gov. Mitt Romney "is the worst nightmare for Democrats," and, "How can it not be bad news for you that Mitt Romney wins Iowa." Carlson touted the "record turnout" in last night's caucuses and declared that "there doesn't seem to be a tremendous amount of enthusiasm" for President Obama. Carlson also made dubious claims about Romney's history of creating jobs as CEO of Bain Capital. Watch:

About 20 minutes later, co-host Steve Doocy interviewed Preibus. The interviews could not have been more different. While Wasserman Schultz was peppered with GOP talking points and promotion of Romney, Preibus wasn't challenged on a single claim he made. In fact, Doocy helpfully made Preibus' points before him, and then merely asked him to elaborate. The interview was so friendly, in fact, that Fox & Friends had a graphic ready listing what the RNC claims are Obama's "failed promises":

Doocy ended the interview by promising another interview on "another day" to discuss a different list that the RNC has compiled to attack Obama -- "a catalog of things the president has said in the last three years and also in the run-up to the election" that "is going to come back to haunt him." Watch: